June is Pride Month. Sparked by the Stonewall Riots in 1969, Pride is an annual commemoration of LGBTQ+ individuals and culture and celebrates the lengths that we have come in achieving LGBTQ+ inclusion and equality.
While Pride is, and should be, a celebration of the progress made towards acceptance and equality for LGBTQ+ individuals, it is also a reminder that there is still work to do to ensure that LGBTQ+ individuals are afforded the same rights as their non-LGBTQ+ counterparts, not just in the UK and Europe, but worldwide.
Pride month also allows us to reflect on LGBTQ+ history and celebrate the individuals within the LGBTQ+ community that have made significant contributions to society. To celebrate pride month this year, Forresters will be featuring three LGBTQ+ individuals that have been influential in the science and technology fields and any Intellectual Property that they have been involved in generating.
The first LGBTQ+ individual in our series is Lynn Conway – a computer scientist and transgender activist. Lynn’s inventions revolutionised computer engineering at the time and still, to this day, influence how we engage and interact with computers.
In 1964, Lynn was employed by a large, multinational technology corporation where she, while presenting as male, worked on an Advanced Computing Systems project. When Lynn informed her employer that she was planning to undergo gender reassignment surgery, Lynn’s employment was terminated due to negative attitudes towards transgender individuals at the time. Lynn then underwent gender reassignment surgery in 1968. Post-surgery, Lynn continued her career in what she termed “stealth mode” meaning that she kept her trans identity secret for fear of persecution. Whilst operating in “stealth mode”, Lynn worked at leading technology companies at the time and is probably best known for her work on very large-scale integration (VLSL) – the process of combining millions/billions of MOS (metal–oxide–semiconductor) transistors to create an integrated circuit on a single chip. This technology paved the way for the production of microchips that are critical in manufacturing many aspects of modern technology that we use today and will have been associated with numerous forms of Intellectual Property, such as patents to protect any new and inventive technology.
Lynn was eventually “outed” as a transgender woman in her peer group as her previous work was recognised by a computer science historian who tracked down the achievements made by Lynn prior to her gender reassignment surgery. This led to Lynn publicly revealing that she was transgender and by 1999 Lynn was actively sharing her story to support other individuals. Presently, Lynn is an advocate for transgender rights and equality and is consistently listed as an influential member of the trans community in numerous publications.
Lynn’s story is a clear example of how nurturing diversity and inclusion in the workplace can result in a beneficial outcome for all. Forresters’ Equality and Diversity team are actively involved in ensuring that Forresters is a great place to work for all and actively supports Equality and Diversity initiatives. As Lynn Conway famously said, “If you want to change the future, start living as if you’re already there”.
